A two-time event winner on last season’s inaugural Supreme Pool Series, reigning BI World Champion Scott Gillespie begins his Liberty Games Open campaign against Clint I’Anson in an opening round blockbuster on Friday.
Held at the Players Pool and Snooker Lounge near Stoke-on-Trent, the competition is the curtain raiser to this year’s prestigious five-event Supreme Pool Series that brings together top, multi-disciplined English 8-Ball players from across the world. Entries from the UK, Europe, Africa and even Australia will have their eyes on the title and a lucrative £5,000 top prize payday come Sunday evening.
Scotland’s Gillespie made history in 2018 when he claimed the first ever SPS event. He will be hoping to repeat his success of making a fast start to a new term this weekend, although he faces the unenviable task of multiple major tournament winner I'Anson first up in a preliminary round tie.
Pre-tournament favourite Phil Harrison also secured a double of SPS titles last year – winning the back-to-back Strachan Open and Supreme Masters during the summer months. One of several current or former world title holders on display this year, Harrison looks set to cross cues with 2017 IPA World Champion Craig Marsh in the first round proper.
Number 1 ranked player Liam Dunster, who claimed last season’s concluding Grand Final and walked off with a record-breaking cheque of £51,000, will start the defence of his pole position against the rapid Darren McVicar.
Former professional snooker player and 2010 Shanghai Masters finalist Jamie Burnett has signed up to the series, and he too is on duty early doors when up against another promising youngster in Kian Monaghan. An entrant who has made an even bigger commitment is Australia’s Jake McCartney, whose thirst for premier level pool will be quenched in this unique, pressure environment. McCartney plays Scott Crawley Friday lunchtime.
Following the success of their introduction at the Grand Final last December, the series makes a full transition to Supreme Rules throughout this year. Format-wise, the 2019 Liberty Games Open features an initial double-elimination qualifying portion where eight will emerge undefeated, whilst another eight will come through the ‘Losers’ Side’ to join them. From the last 16 onwards the tournament becomes straight knockout.
You can catch free, live action of the 2019 Liberty Games Open courtesy of Beard Productions on YouTube across all three days. Starting Friday at 12.30GMT, four tables from each session will be streamed simultaneously.
After last year's unparalleled success, the groundbreaking Supreme Pool Series will make its eagerly awaited return for a second installment in 2019. The big money, five-event concept will once again bring together top exponents of the English 8-Ball Pool world all under one roof at the renowned Players Pool and Snooker Lounge near Stoke-on-Trent.
Mirroring the inaugural edition, the season opens in Spring and leads up to a Grand Final event towards the end of the year. After listening to constructive feedback from the players, though, tweaks have been made to the programme elsewhere.
The 2018 calendar featured a share of both World Rules and Blackball events – representative of the unique cross-code palette of entries that was on display. However, due to the popularity of the new Supreme Rules that were showcased in the final event, a decision was made to adopt them throughout the whole of the upcoming campaign.
Another mission objective of the series was to reward the players with improved prize money; this was exhibited when Liam Dunster walked off with a record £51,000 winners' cheque at the end of the year – the largest amount ever awarded in the sport’s tournament history. Whilst lucrative sums are still available to the champions of each event this time around, total prize money has been spread out further down in 2019 with around the top third in each tournament guaranteed to cash.
The Supreme Pool Series has received global acclaim with viewers from both sides of the world tuning into the online Beard Productions live stream coverage. Overseas demand for the series cannot be understated, so much so, that an exciting additional event has been agreed for the start of October – the four-day Morocco Masters that is scheduled to take place in Tangier.
Who’s involved?
Once again, all three reigning world champions of the sport have signed up to the series – Marc Farnsworth (IPA World Champion), Mick Hill (WEPF World Champion) and Scott Gillespie (BI World Champion), who claimed two SPS titles last year.
A plethora of former world champions from different rulesets adds to the embarrassment of riches on display including Phil Harrison – back-to-back winner on the circuit in 2018 – and the ultra-consistent Dunster, who finished the series as the number one ranked player. Countless other major title winners, professionals and internationals will feature too.
Chris Melling and Karl Boyes – multi-time Mosconi Cup champions in the past and former world champions in various disciplines themselves – will both also return to their smaller table roots.
A trademark of the Supreme Pool Series is international participation. Typically strong representation from the UK will be challenged by a cosmopolitan contingent of hopefuls coming from Ireland, Malta, Morroco and even as far afield as Australia.
Event 1 – The Liberty Games Open – takes place next week between the 5th-7th April.
The richest prize in the history of English 8 Ball Pool will be claimed come the conclusion of the Home Leisure Direct Grand Finals this weekend at the Players Pool and Snooker Lounge in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Held between the 30th November to the 2nd December, this showcase event is the culmination of the five-leg Supreme Pool Series that has been running throughout the year. The innovative concept has brought together the world’s best players from both sides of the sport’s rules divide, thus allowing to feature dream inter-promotional clashes that the fans have been starved of in recent times.
Entrants from all four corners of the UK and Ireland have been joined by representatives from France, Malta, Morocco, India and even Australia, in what has been a truly international outreaching series in terms of viewership and participation.
With the inevitable strength in depth, it is perhaps a surprise that just two players have dominated proceedings by scooping up all four titles on the series so far.
Scott Gillespie claimed the first (Jason Owen Open) and latest (K8.com Classic) stops on the circuit, whilst the evergreen Phil Harrison tasted back-to-back successes at the Strachan Cup and Supreme Masters during the summer. Harrison’s dramatic deciding frame win against fellow all-time great Mick Hill in the Masters was arguably one of the sport’s finest ever finals.
125 players have met the qualifying criteria for the Home Leisure Direct Grand Finals, which will be played under the new, revolutionary Supreme Rules discipline. The last man standing will walk away with a life changing £51,000, a new record in English 8-Ball Pool competition history, eclipsing the £50k that was won by Frankie Sargeant during the one-frame Pub Pool Challenge at the Ricoh Arena in 2006.
The seeds and the draw
As was the case in the last two events on the series, double elimination qualifying is the order of the day until the Last 16 knockouts.
Top seeds Harrison, Gillespie and two-time finalist Liam Dunster all receive opening round byes. Five-times WEPF World Champion Hill, who is likely to be the pre-tournament favourite once
again, will face Malta’s Scott Muscat first up. Hill will be hoping to break his SPS duck at the most potent point.
For his standards, IPA World Champion Ben Davies has had a disappointing time at Players this year, but he too has the opportunity to time his run perfectly. The Welshman crosses cues with fellow professional Craig Brown, the winner will meet Gillespie in Round Two.
Coming off the back of a trio of big victories in recent weeks, the in-form Mark Boyle is another fancied competitor looking to strike. Sitting in the same mini-section as Gillespie and Davies, his first challenge to complete is Michael Smout.
2013 and 2014 WEPF World Champion Tom Cousins takes on George Tierney in what will be a keenly watched affair, whilst long time professional number 1 Marc Farnsworth would meet BCA Hall of Famer Darren Appleton in the second stage if they overcome Ben Mackie and Darren McVicar respectively.
Appleton is not the only star name from the wider world of cuesports who has returned to his smaller table roots during the Supreme Pool Series. Enticed by the prestige and record-breaking rewards on offer, Chris Melling (plays Lee Washbrook) and Karl Boyes (plays Lee Clough) are eligible and available for the Grand Finals, too. Jayson Shaw, who will be on duty with Team EUROPE at the Mosconi Cup, also featured earlier in the campaign.
All three days of this historic spectacle will be broadcast live via Beard Productions, who will stream four tables simultaneously from every session.
Scott Gillespie (Photo courtesy of Supreme Pool Series)
Scott Gillespie returned to winning ways on the Supreme Pool Series with victory at the 2018 K8.com Classic last weekend.
The talented Scottish cueist won the season opening Jason Owen Open in May, but after early exits in the following two competitions on the SPS circuit, Gillespie has quickly reminded the English 8-Ball world why he is one of the best around.
Gillespie qualified unscathed for the knockouts after coming through an ultra tough section of the draw. In a blockbuster first round tie he got the better of Phil Harrison 11-6; the only other player to have triumphed on the series so far.
He then ousted 2016 IPA World Champion Gareth Hibbott via a deciding frame, 11-10, and saw off two-times former WEPF World Junior Champion Jordan Church, 11-7. Securing his berth in the Last 16, the World Cup of Pool selection defeated Northern Irish rising star Declan Brennan, 11-7.
The random draw for the KOs drew Gillespie and Brennan together again – it was the former who would repeat the prescription, but with a different dose of 11-8.
Enjoying his best run in the series so far, the dangerous Craig Waddingham was eliminated 11-7 in the Quarter-Finals, whilst fellow countryman and the winner of multiple titles in recent years, Mark Boyle, was comprehensively dispatched 11-3 in the Semis.
Gillespie's opponent in the final was England's Shaun Storry, who had produced a string of impressive results on route.
Just like his rival in the final, Storry had advanced through the long weekend undefeated – it would be the first time on the series this year that both finalists came from the winners' section. Among those who lost to Storry included Hibbott (11-9) in the Last 16 and pre-tournament favourite Mick Hill (11-7) in the Last 8, a result that Storry described as the biggest win of his life on Social Media.
Despite having been priced up as 40/1 before a ball was struck, Storry had already been a champion at the Players Pool and Snooker Lounge venue when he claimed the Players Amateur Challenge in the spring of 2017.
However, his memorable run and ambition of a second title there was denied by Gillespie, who won the final 11-7 to become the 2018 K8.com Classic Champion, taking the trophy and £5,000 home as rewards.
Elsewhere in the 128 player entry event, winner of the Strachan Cup and Supreme Masters over the summer, Harrison's bid for an unprecedented hat-trick was closed early. After his opening round loss to Gillespie, the former World Champion was unable to re-create the heroics he produced during August and succumbed via the earliest avenue on the losers' side when he lost to Lee Clough in a decider.
Finalist at events 1 and 2, Liam Dunster's stay in Newcastle-under-Lyme was also brought to a close by Clough in a deciding frame during the Losers' Round 3.
Reigning World Masters Champion Callum Singleton make his mark on the series by reaching the Last 4 before going out to Storry. In the previous round he pipped former back-to-back WEPF World Champion Tom Cousins, 11-10.
Ronan McCarthy and Marc Farnsworth, two of the sport's most consistent performers, both qualified for the single elimination portion again. They lost in the Last 16 to Singleton (11-7) and Hill (11-10), respectively.
Attention on the Supreme Pool Series now turns to the climax of the season; the record-breaking Home Leisure Direct Grand Finals. Taking place between the 30th November to the 2nd December, the event boasts a top prize of £51,000 – the largest amount in English 8-Ball tournament history.
2018 Supreme Pool Series – Event 4, the K8.com Classic